Saturday, February 19, 2011

2011 Academy Awards: Will the real Oscar please stand up?

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Harmon Oscar Nelson and Bette Davis

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Meet Harmon Oscar Nelson. Superstar? No. Married to one, yes.

Hollywood grande dame Bette Davis accepted her 1936 Oscar -- the 8th Academy Awards -- and in press reports boasted that the coveted statuette was named after her first husband of several husbands. He was a bandleader.

Another version of the Oscar story claims that the Academy's Executive Secretary claimed that the award reminded her of her Uncle Oscar, referring to her cousin Oscar Pierce and might have led to the statuette's naming, while another famous secretary, this time the Norwegian-born executive assistant to Louis B. Mayer is rumored to have told her boss that it looked like King Oscar II, and she coined the nickname.

King Oscar II

Uncle Oscar

Origin notwithstanding, the award became known as an Oscar in 1939 by the Academy and the name has stuck since then.